The cross-trainer is also popularly called the elliptical. It is a low-impact cardiovascular exercise equipment. This exercise machine mimics the movements involved in country skiing. This is great equipment for those who have lower body injuries who won’t be able to handle the physical stress of jogging and running. If you are not comfy with treadmills, you can still lose weight using any of the machines from cross-trainers Australia firms.
The American Heart Association offers some useful advice. According to its health guidance, it’s sufficient to have 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five times a week. This can be easily completed using the cross-trainer. Here are some exercises that can be done on the elliptical that can help you shed pounds:
Interval Training
Interval training includes short bursts of exercise speed and longer recovery period for the entire duration of the exercise. An example of interval training is to increase your running speed for a minute and to reduce it for the next two minutes. Interval training makes your heart rate increase while exercising on the elliptical. This burns more calories in the process.
Mix Intervals with Resistance Training
One of the best ways to shed unwanted pounds is to let your body guess all the time. If you do the same exercise every week, the body gets accustomed to it, and it is not challenged by it anymore. When you match interval training with a high resistance, you let your body do something that it is not accustomed to. This pushes your heart and muscles to work harder making you lose more calories and your body continuously challenged. This is why it’s best that you buy from one of the cross-trainers Australia companies.
Increase the Resistance
Each elliptical trainer allows you to make the workout more challenging by bumping up the resistance. With an increased resistance on the cross-trainer, it becomes harder for you to push the pedals using your legs and arms. This makes your heart work much harder, increase your calorie burn, and use your muscles more particularly the lower body.
Use the Fat-Burning Setting of the Cross-Trainer
Modern cross-trainers come with built-in preset programs. A lot of elliptical machines have a fat-burning program that automatically programs the resistance and duration of the workout session. This removes the task of calculating from you. However, make sure that you burn a sufficient amount of calories by exercising at a moderate level of 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Program the machine and keep the intensity while you work out.
If there is no preset program, you can keep track of your intensity by wearing a heart rate monitor.
Lastly, don’t forget to make a plan of when you are going to exercise and rest. Allow rest days apart for the body to recover.
